Five Things About Modern

Mike FloresThursday, January 26, 2012

hile we here at DailyMTG.com took the last couple of weeks "off" to start bringing out peeks and teasers toward the awesomeness that is—that will be—Dark Ascension, the competitive Magic world beyond the walls of Renton, WA, got Pro Tour Avacyn Restored qualifiers into full swing.

This season is Modern, the still-relatively-new, bigger-than-Extended home of old favorites and new combinations both. Modern resembles Standard in some ways (one of the top decks, for instance, is essentially a Standard transplant), Legacy in others (you can do anything you want, super cool, within the bounds of your mana base), but is ultimately an animal unto itself. Its size—the sheer number of cards available—gives Modern speed. The coexistence of Zendikar (and its Arid Mesas) and Ravnica block (and its Breeding Pools) plow for Modern mana bases a wide road, ranging from single-color control decks to five-color decks touching hither and thither for all manner of flashbacks and splashes.

Here are five things I have learned playing Modern on Magic Online, talking to aficionados of the format (or at least PTQ participants), and perusing dozens and dozens of deck lists:

1. Modern's Large Card Pool Allows You to Play a Critical Mass of Cheap, Synergistic Threats

Spanning sets from Scars of Mirrodin back to regular-old Mirrodin, the Modern Affinity deck is a testament to speed, setting a benchmark for large-scale competitive formats. I mean, check out the average mana cost of this deck! With only fifteen lands—forty-five spells, therefore, in its main-deck sixty—Affinity tops out at a mere 56 total mana, with an average mana cost of 1.24! Essentially, if Affinity draws two lands, that is going to be enough to cast almost everything.

This is a deck that can set a pace offensively. First turn, you can lay out a couple of Memnites and a Signal Pest, maybe fortify with a Steel Overseer on the second turn, and then end it all in short order with Galvanic and Shrapnel Blasts. The deck actually commands a fair amount of big burn (at decidedly not-big mana costs) that pack a ton of damage (4 and 5, respectively).

The biggest difference with Carrier's deck is the decision to, you know, actually cast stuff. Carrier's deck relies less on explosiveness and more on the power of cards like Master of Etherium (three mana) and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (at four). In a deck that is almost all artifacts, Tezzeret's third ability will often win the game by itself.

2. Even Without Ponder, Preordain, or (ahem) Blazing Shoal, the Format is Fast

Splinter Twin has been a superb performer since Modern's debut. That said, it is only one of many blue-red combo decks in the format (Storm, other Storm, Hive Mind, and so on); however, to date, Splinter Twin seems to be the most successful.

While the strategy will never yield one of the "oops I won on the second turn" draws, Splinter Twin is awesome in its multi-faceted, redundant, infinite-ness.

When I say infinite, I don't mean that as an exaggeration, like when you have six cards in hand and your opponent asks you how many and you say, "I dunno, infinite I guess." I mean literally an unending amount of damage if you want. You get a Splinter Twin on a Deceiver Exarch and you can keep tapping and untapping until you are tired of it.

For all its brutal speed (sometimes), Modern is diverse enough to support stuff other than "only" hyper-fast aggro decks or merciless combo kills. Just look at Brad's deck... it literally reads like a greatest hits album of "stuff people like to play."

RUG Delver is a pretty good example of a deck that can do lots of different things well—a testament to its ability to play lots of different cards. It is a deck that can produce a fast and effective offense (Delver of Secrets is, as was winked at above, quite the flying Wild Nacatl). This is especially true in a deck—like Brad's—that insists on playing Serum Visions.

Oh yeah, this is also a fine Smallpox and Death Cloud deck. If you go first, play a land (maybe make the opponent discard) and follow your opponent's land-plus-guy with a land-plus-Smallpox on your second turn. You both lose a land (your opponent now has none), your opponent loses a guy (you don't), and everybody discards... But! You are the one with Life from the Loam. Some turns later you have Garruk Wildspeaker plus Death Cloud and all kinds of simple math-defying destruction.

Isn't it a great format where you can bend the universe to your will like Wirecat did?